Even among GOP, few say shutdown was worth it

Thursday

Oct 17, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 17, 2013 at 12:47 PM

WASHINGTON - Fool's errand or heroic stand? The bipartisan compromise yesterday to avoid a financial default and end a 16-day partial government shutdown cast a spotlight on Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, who had precipitated the crises with their demand that President Barack Obama gut his 3-year-old health-care law.

WASHINGTON - Fool's errand or heroic stand?

The bipartisan compromise yesterday to avoid a financial default and end a 16-day partial government shutdown cast a spotlight on Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, who had precipitated the crises with their demand that President Barack Obama gut his 3-year-old health-care law.

Other Republicans who repeatedly had warned the two about their quixotic move took little pleasure in saying "I told you so." The final deal hardly nicked the health-care law, while the shutdown and near-default left the GOP reeling.

"He's the one who got us into this. He had no strategy. And it caused us to waste 16 days and get ourselves killed in the polls," Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said of Cruz.

With a heavy dose of gallows humor, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Republicans' poll "numbers have gone down, Obamacare's somehow mysteriously have gone up. And other than that, this has been great."

Cruz, a freshman who egged on House Republicans for the fight, was unapologetic and critical of his GOP Senate colleagues.

"Imagine a different world," Cruz said in a Senate speech yesterday, "if all 46 Senate Republicans had stood together and said, 'We are united against the train wreck that is Obamacare.'??"

In fact, all Senate Republicans oppose the law; what they had challenged was the two senators' tactics.

Lee offered no regrets either, vowing to continue the fight to repeal the health-care law. "This is not over," he said in a Senate speech yesterday.

Cruz's defiance has been wildly cheered by outside conservative groups that have made money on the months-long dispute and the far right flank that hails Cruz and Lee for what they call a principled, courageous stand.

Cruz, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, has seized the headlines and collected nearly $800,000 for his political-action committee in the past three months.

"I think Ted Cruz and Mike Lee did exactly the job that those of us who helped them get elected" wanted them to do, said Drew Ryun of the Madison Project, one of the first conservative organizations to back Cruz last year in his longshot Senate bid.

Among tea party Republicans, Cruz's popularity has climbed, from a 47 percent favorability rating in July to

74 percent, according to a Pew Research Center poll released yesterday. But the poll found that nearly half the public had an unfavorable opinion of the movement, while 30 percent had a favorable opinion.

"The tea party is less popular than ever, with even many Republicans now viewing the movement negatively," the poll synopsis said.

Among Senate Republicans, Cruz and Lee are near pariahs, publicly slammed for a tactic that has taken a heavy toll on the GOP's standing and privately criticized for helping outside groups targeting Republican incumbents before next year's congressional elections.

"What did I say three weeks ago, what did I say a month ago? It was a fool's errand," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., waving a copy of the latest poll for reporters clustered in the Senate basement this week. "I knew that it was going to be a disaster, and it is a disaster."

At one meeting, Cruz presented his own poll numbers and argued that Republicans weren't suffering despite the overwhelming evidence suggesting they were, prompting eye-rolling from his colleagues.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a fierce opponent of the health-care law, called the effort to unravel it a "fantasy." She was a key player in arranging yesterday's deal.

Further riling the GOP is the reality that the shutdown and the default threat have overshadowed the problem-plagued rollout of the health-care marketplacess on Oct. 1, despite Republican efforts to highlight the program's woes.